This invention relates generally to talking books having entertainment and educational value, and more particularly to an interactive talking book system which produces auditory content based on the identity of the page of the book open to the reader.
Story telling must surely be one of the oldest forms of art. Story telling perpetuates cultural memory, educates the listener, promulgates shared ethics and morality, and entertains. Oral presentation of wisdom, story and myth encapsulated and preserved some of the oldest elements of knowledge and understanding that separated humans from animals. Classic texts from Greek times embody those traditions in written form.
However rich and colorful the written forms that stories take, the printed word cannot provide the wealth and diversity of knowledge and entertainment that a human story teller can convey. By shaping the telling of a story to the background and understanding of the audience, and weaving the narrative around the reactions and responses of the listeners, the skilled narrator can provide a greatly enriched and captivating experience.
In recent decades, technology has provided tools to convey richer and more varied types of content beyond mere printed text, including for example full-color still images, audio, and motion video. Various attempts have been made to use such technologies to enhance story telling. For example, Freeman U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,317 describes a system that uses multiple prerecorded tracks of audio and a selection mechanism by use of which a listener can, at certain points in the narrative flow, select from among alternative audio content. Shiels et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,751,953 and 5,754,770 describe a system for presenting audio-video content wherein the viewer periodically interacts with the system to select an option in the branching narrative, or to effect an action to store some information about the narrative, said interactions influencing the selection of which of multiple stored elements of content is displayed as the narrative progresses.
A weakness of each of these systems is that the main flow of the narrative is necessarily determined in advance, and the content or plot of the story unfolds in a basically linear fashion, albeit with optional branches that provide supplementary or alternative content. On the other hand, a book by its nature allows the reader freedom to explore the content in various ways. The reader can proceed from first page to last with pause, or can skip ahead to skim for information about the plot resolution, or return to earlier material to reread and reconsider the significance of an earlier plot point or narrative detail. Accordingly, accessing a story in book form has certain advantages over other forms of multimedia presentation. Accordingly, inventors have developed methods and systems for augmenting the content of conventional books.
Pierce et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,296 describes a storybook that uses a sound synthesizer associated with a book to progressively reveal auditory information that supplements the text and imagery in the book. Billings U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,444 describes a book system configured such that the reader can select a story element depicted on a page, and a character from the plot, and in response to the selection the book system provides auditory messages that relate to the story element and the character. Rehkemper et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,525,706 discloses a book incorporating an electronic display upon which still and/or moving imagery is portrayed, along with optional audio content, when the reader depresses a button to signal which page is being viewed. Blotky et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,788,283 describes a similar system which utilizes a sensor to automatically detect which page is being viewed and provides supplementary material.
None of the systems described in the prior art provides for flexible access to the primary printed content of a narrative, while providing supplementary material selectively relevant to particular portions of the narrative and responsive to the sequence of actions made by the reader.